The TV and radio personality was speaking at last Thursday's NESTA event entitled 'Social Media: A Source of Good?'

A self-confessed technophile, Fry described how he had made his own mistakes, and said the use of social media was a 'responsibility'.

Fry said: 'All new means of communication have been derided and decried because they are seen as encouraging demagoguery of the worst kind. It may be that there will be dark days when social media are seen to cause genuine damage and even death by inflaming people wrongly.'